Legal

Terms of Service

Better Living Through Design (BLTD, betterlivingthroughdesign.com, BLTD, LLC) is an online resource for people interested in great design. We look through hundreds of sites each week to find the best products in the design world that are available immediately for purchase online. BLTD’s service is free.

While we make every effort to provide accurate links, product descriptions and prices to the products that we post, the retailers frequently change prices and/or sell out of merchandise and, due to the nature of BLTD, it is simply not possible to ensure that all links or product descriptions are up to date and accurate. It is your responsibility as the consumer to ensure the accuracy of the products before you make your purchase and to follow up with the retailer related to all issues of your order. If you know of a product that needs a price or link update, please let us know and we will do our best to update the information as soon as possible.

Through our online service members are able to view products and share comments with other people through our Comments feature. In the future, members may be able to save certain products to their own Favorites Page.

By using the BLTD web site, a service of BLTD, LLC, you are agreeing to be bound by the following Member Agreement and by the comments & community guidelines we set forth. Collectively these two documents are the Terms & Conditions of using betterlivingthroughdesign.com.

Terms of Service:

We acknowledge and thank Automattic profusely for making their Terms of Service available under a Creative Commons Sharealike license. We have used their Terms of Service as ours, and all the following terms and conditions govern all use of the Betterlivingthroughdesign.com website (“The Website”) and our related services.

The Website is owned and operated by BLTD, LLC (“BLTD”). The Website is offered subject to your acceptance without modification of all of the terms and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules, policies (including, without limitation, BLTD’s Privacy Policy) and procedures that may be published from time to time on this Site by BLTD (collectively, the “Agreement”).

Please read this Agreement carefully before accessing or using The Website. By accessing or using any part of the web site, you agree to become bound by the terms and conditions of this agreement. If you do not agree to all the terms and conditions of this agreement, then you may not access The Website or use any services. If these terms and conditions are considered an offer by BLTD, acceptance is expressly limited to these terms. The Website is available only to individuals who are at least 13 years old.

Your Betterlivingthroughdesign.com Account and Site. If you create a Favorites Page on The Website, you are responsible for maintaining the security of your account, and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account and any other actions taken in connection with your Favorites Page and account. You must not describe or assign keywords to your Favorites Page in a misleading or unlawful manner, including in a manner intended to trade on the name or reputation of others, and BLTD may change or remove any description or keyword that it considers inappropriate or unlawful, or otherwise likely to cause BLTD liability. You must immediately notify BLTD of any unauthorized uses of your blog, your account or any other breaches of security. BLTD will not be liable for any acts or omissions by You, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions.

Responsibility of Contributors. If you operate a Favorites Page, comment on a Favorites Page, post material to The Website, post links on The Website, or otherwise make (or allow any third party to make) material available by means of The Website (any such material, “Content”), You are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content. That is the case regardless of whether the Content in question constitutes text, graphics, an audio file, or computer software. By making Content available, you represent and warrant that:

*the downloading, copying and use of the Content will not infringe the proprietary rights, including but not limited to the copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret rights, of any third party;
*if your employer has rights to intellectual property you create, you have either (i) received permission from your employer to post or make available the Content, including but not limited to any software, or (ii) secured from your employer a waiver as to all rights in or to the Content;
*you have fully complied with any third-party licenses relating to the Content, and have done all things necessary to successfully pass through to end users any required terms;
*the Content does not contain or install any viruses, worms, malware, Trojan horses or other harmful or destructive content;
*the Content is not spam, is not machine- or randomly-generated, and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing);
*the Content is not pornographic, libelous or defamatory (more info on what that means), does not contain threats or incite violence towards individuals or entities, and does not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party;
*your blog is not getting advertised via unwanted electronic messages such as spam links on newsgroups, email lists, other blogs and web sites, and similar unsolicited promotional methods;
*your blog is not named in a manner that misleads your readers into thinking that you are another person or company. For example, your blog’s URL or name is not the name of a person other than yourself or company other than your own; and
*you have, in the case of Content that includes computer code, accurately categorized and/or described the type, nature, uses and effects of the materials, whether requested to do so by BLTD, LLC or otherwise.

By submitting Content to BLTD for inclusion on The Website, you grant BLTD a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting your Favorites Page. If you delete Content, BLTD will use reasonable efforts to remove it from The Website, but you acknowledge that caching or references to the Content may not be made immediately unavailable. Without limiting any of those representations or warranties, BLTD has the right (though not the obligation) to, in BLTD’s sole discretion (i) refuse or remove any content that, in BLTD’s reasonable opinion, violates any BLTD policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (ii) terminate or deny access to and use of The Website to any individual or entity for any reason, in BLTD’s sole discretion. BLTD will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid.

Fees and Payment. BLTD is a free service. Hurray.

Responsibility of Website Visitors. BLTD has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, posted to The Website, and cannot therefore be responsible for that material’s content, use or effects. By operating The Website, BLTD does not represent or imply that it endorses the material there posted, or that it believes such material to be accurate, useful or non-harmful. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. The Website may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, and other errors. The Website may also contain material that violates the privacy or publicity rights, or infringes the intellectual property and other proprietary rights, of third parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated. BLTD disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from the use by visitors of The Website, or from any downloading by those visitors of content there posted.

Content Posted on Other Websites. We have not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, made available through The Websites and webpages to which Betterlivingthroughdesign.com links, and that link to Betterlivingthroughdesign.com. BLTD does not have any control over those non-BLTD websites and webpages, and is not responsible for their contents or their use. By linking to a non-BLTD website or webpage, BLTD does not represent or imply that it endorses such website or webpage. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. BLTD disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from your use of non-BLTD websites and webpages.

Copyright Infringement and DMCA Policy. As BLTD asks others to respect its intellectual property rights, it respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that material located on or linked to by BLTD violates your copyright, please notify BLTD, LLC by means of an emailed notice (“Infringement Notice”) providing the information described below to the email address listed below.
All Infringement Notices need to be sent to contact -at- betterlivingthroughdesign -dot- com as plain text emails without attachments and include the following or they will be deemed invalid:

*An electronic signature of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on their behalf;
*An identification of the copyright claimed to have been infringed;
*A description of the nature and exact location of the content that you claim to infringe your copyright, in sufficient detail to permit Automattic to find and positively identify that content; for example we require a link to the specific blog post (not just the name of the blog) that contains the content and a description of which specific portion of the blog post an image, a link, the text, etc your complaint refers to;
*Your name, address, telephone number and email address; and
*A statement by you: (a) that you believe in good faith that the use of the content that you claim to infringe your copyright is not authorized by law, or by the copyright owner or such owner’s agent; and (b) under penalty of perjury, that all of the information contained in your Infringement Notice is accurate, and that you are either the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on their behalf.

If a DMCA notice is valid, we are required by law to respond to it by disabling access to the allegedly infringing content. BLTD will respond to all such notices, including as required or appropriate by removing the infringing material or disabling all links to the infringing material within a reasonable time period.
In the case of a visitor who may infringe or repeatedly infringes the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of BLTD or others, BLTD may, in its discretion, terminate or deny access to and use of The Website.

Intellectual Property. This Agreement does not transfer from BLTD to you any BLTD or third party intellectual property, and all right, title and interest in and to such property will remain (as between the parties) solely with BLTD, LLC. BLTD, Better Living Through Design, Betterlivingthroughdesign.com, the Betterlivingthroughdesign.com logo, and all other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with Betterlivingthroughdesign.com, or The Website are trademarks or registered trademarks of BLTD or BLTD’s licensors. Other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with The Website may be the trademarks of other third parties. Your use of The Website grants you no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any BLTD, LLC or third-party trademarks.

Changes. BLTD, LLC reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or replace any part of this Agreement. It is your responsibility to check this Agreement periodically for changes. Your continued use of or access to The Website following the posting of any changes to this Agreement constitutes acceptance of those changes. BLTD may also, in the future, offer new services and/or features through The Website (including, the release of new tools and resources). Such new features and/or services shall be subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement.

Termination. BLTD, LLC may terminate your access to all or any part of The Website at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately. If you wish to terminate this Agreement or your Betterlivingthroughdesign.com account (if you have one), you may simply discontinue using The Website. All provisions of this Agreement which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.

Disclaimer of Warranties. The Website is provided “as is”. BLTD and its suppliers and licensors hereby disclaim all warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Neither BLTD nor its suppliers and licensors, makes any warranty that The Website will be error free or that access thereto will be continuous or uninterrupted. You understand that you download from, or otherwise obtain content or services through, The Website at your own discretion and risk.

Limitation of Liability. In no event will BLTD, or its suppliers or licensors, be liable with respect to any subject matter of this agreement under any contract, negligence, strict liability or other legal or equitable theory for: (i) any special, incidental or consequential damages; (ii) the cost of procurement or substitute products or services; (iii) for interruption of use or loss or corruption of data; or (iv) for any amounts that exceed the fees paid by you to BLTD under this agreement during the twelve (12) month period prior to the cause of action. BLTD shall have no liability for any failure or delay due to matters beyond their reasonable control. The foregoing shall not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law.

General Representation and Warranty. You represent and warrant that (i) your use of The Website will be in strict accordance with the BLTD Privacy Policy, with this Agreement and with all applicable laws and regulations (including without limitation any local laws or regulations in your country, state, city, or other governmental area, regarding online conduct and acceptable content, and including all applicable laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from the United States or the country in which you reside) and (ii) your use of The Website will not infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of any third party.

Indemnification. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless BLTD, its contractors, and its licensors, and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents from and against any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising out of your use of The Website, including but not limited to your violation of this Agreement.

Miscellaneous. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between BLTD and you concerning the subject matter hereof, and they may only be modified by a written amendment signed by an authorized executive of BLTD, or by the posting by BLTD of a revised version. Except to the extent applicable law, if any, provides otherwise, this Agreement, any access to or use of The Website will be governed by the laws of the state of California, U.S.A., excluding its conflict of law provisions, and the proper venue for any disputes arising out of or relating to any of the same will be the state and federal courts located in San Francisco County, California. Except for claims for injunctive or equitable relief or claims regarding intellectual property rights (which may be brought in any competent court without the posting of a bond), any dispute arising under this Agreement shall be finally settled in accordance with the Comprehensive Arbitration Rules of the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Service, Inc. (“JAMS”) by three arbitrators appointed in accordance with such Rules. The arbitration shall take place in San Francisco, California, in the English language and the arbitral decision may be enforced in any court. The prevailing party in any action or proceeding to enforce this Agreement shall be entitled to costs and attorneys’ fees. If any part of this Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, that part will be construed to reflect the parties’ original intent, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. A waiver by either party of any term or condition of this Agreement or any breach thereof, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition or any subsequent breach thereof. You may assign your rights under this Agreement to any party that consents to, and agrees to be bound by, its terms and conditions; BLTD, LLC may assign its rights under this Agreement without condition. This Agreement will be binding upon and will inure to the benefit of the parties, their successors and permitted assigns.

Comments & Community Guidelines
1. Please keep your comments to the topic at hand.
2. Don’t be mean or rude; state your opinion in a respectful manner. Harrassment is not permitted.
3. Advertisements and spam in the comments are not permitted.
4. If you have signed up as a member and use a Favorites Folder, please note the following guidelines for your personal photo:
*No illegal images. We will delete your account and report you to the authorities asap.
*No violent (bloody, gorey, gross, etc.) photos are permitted.
*No images are permitted that show nudity or any sexual activity.

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BLTD’s Privacy Policy

(Again, thanks to WordPress, who makes this privacy policy available under a Creative Commons License.)

Your privacy is critically important to us. At BLTD we have a few fundamental principles:

* We don’t ask you for personal information unless we truly need it. (We can’t stand services that ask you for things like your gender or income level for no apparent reason.)
* We don’t share your personal information with anyone except to comply with the law, develop our products, or protect our rights.
* We don’t store personal information on our servers unless required for the on-going operation of one of our services.

Below is our privacy policy which incorporates these goals:

Website Visitors
Like most website operators, BLTD collects non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. BLTD’s purpose in collecting non-personally identifying information is to better understand how BLTD visitors use its website. From time to time, BLTD may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on trends in the usage of its website.

BLTD also collects potentially personally-identifying information like Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. BLTD does not use such information to identify its visitors, however, and does not disclose such information, other than under the same circumstances that it uses and discloses personally-identifying information, as described below.

Gathering of Personally-Identifying Information
Certain visitors to BLTD choose to interact with BLTD in ways that require BLTD to gather personally-identifying information. The amount and type of information that BLTD gathers depends on the nature of the interaction. For example, we ask visitors who comment to give their email address. You also might be required to give your email address to participate in promotions. In each case, BLTD collects such information only insofar as is necessary or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the visitor’s interaction with BLTD . BLTD does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below. Visitors can always refuse to supply personally-identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent them from engaging in certain website-related activities.

Protection of Certain Personally-Identifying Information
BLTD discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only to those of its employees, contractors and affiliated organizations that (i) need to know that information in order to process it on BLTD’s behalf or to provide services available at BLTD’s websites, and (ii) that have agreed not to disclose it to others. Some of those employees, contractors and affiliated organizations may be located outside of your home country; by using BLTD’s websites, you consent to the transfer of such information to them. BLTD will not rent or sell potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information to anyone. Other than to its employees, contractors and affiliated organizations, as described above, BLTD discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only when required to do so by law, or when BLTD believes in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of BLTD, third parties or the public at large. If you are a registered user of BLTD and have supplied your email address, BLTD may occasionally send you an email to tell you about new features, solicit your feedback, or just keep you up to date with what’s going on with BLTD. BLTD takes all measures reasonably necessary to protect against the unauthorized access, use, alteration or destruction of potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information.

Cookies
A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. BLTD uses cookies to help BLTD identify and track visitors, their usage of BLTD website, and their website access preferences. BLTD visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using BLTD’s websites, with the drawback that certain features of BLTD’s websites may not function properly without the aid of cookies.

Ads
Ads appearing on BLTD may be delivered to users by advertising partners, who may set cookies. These cookies allow the ad server to recognize your computer each time they send you an online advertisement to compile information about you or others who use your computer. This information allows ad networks to, among other things, deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you. This Privacy Policy covers the use of cookies by BLTD and does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers.

Privacy Policy Changes and Updates
Although most changes are likely to be minor, BLTD may change its Privacy Policy from time to time, and in BLTD’s sole discretion. BLTD encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. Your continued use of this site after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.

Effective April 2, 2009

Copyright Notice

The internet is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? We believe so. Here at BLTD we also believe that when information is shared, sources should be properly credited as well as individual and intellectual property rights respected.

We’re happy for you to repost items and/or places we feature on betterlivingthroughdesign.com, as long as BLTD is cited as the source with credit and link to the appropriate permanent page (example: via BLTD). You can click on each post’s image to be taken to the permanent page or click on the ‘Permalink’ link.

If you do repost items and/or places we feature, make sure all copyright notices are respected. Most of the photos we use are owned by the copyright holders unless otherwise specified. Be sure to include relevant credits and links next to text or images you use. If you’re not sure, ask the copyright holder in advance.